Keep toxic cleanup standards stringent

DARLENE SCHANFALD, GUEST COLUMNIST

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Fewer toxins may be spewing out into our air ("EPA wants to scale back pollution tracking program," April 14) but these poisons are still with us in soil, water and sediments. They don't readily self-dissipate, if at all.

But it isn't only the EPA that is poised to scale back; state Ecology is now in the process of looking to lessen its stringent cleanup standard of the most deadly known toxin, dioxin. And along with dioxin, the hazardous and immunosuppressors PCB and PAH cleanup levels also are at risk.

Yes, the air is cleaner because mills such as Rayonier in Port Angeles and in Hoquiam and Georgia Pacific in Bellingham, major polluters and releasers of dioxins, etc., have closed. But as with the Rayonier sites, the contaminants remain; they remain in the soils of residential areas, businesses, schools, medical facilities and public parks as well as in sediments from which much of our seafood comes and in swimming waters.

Human health and natural resource damages will remain and continue for decades while polluters such as Rayonier drag their feet (years behind in cleaning up in Port Angeles while no cleanup is scheduled for the Hoquiam pulp mill pollution) and look for ways to minimize costs and cleanup efforts.

Meanwhile, Ecology exhibits little spine in supporting a serious cleanup schedule, a serious cleanup, protecting citizen health or cleaning up natural resources that, on paper, the state claims it will do in Puget Sound. Is Ecology working to undercut Gov. Christine Gregoire's plans?

Let's not forget that the more than 30 Ecology cleanup sites in Washington state (and many others under the Environmental Protection Agency) are in specific areas. Not every town is directly suffering. Areas with active polluters and those with leftover pollution have clusters of health problems and higher than expected death rates, as was found in Port Angeles.

Add to this the off-site landfills to which the polluting companies dump their toxic wastes and the number of affected communities and illnesses rise.

It is typical to be told by Ecology, when people complain about stench, filthy water and health problems, that a company's polluting emissions "are within allowable limits." These "allowable limits" are what pollute our space and bodies. For humans, there are no "allowable limit" waivers on medical bills, on infant deformities or on cancer.

It doesn't appear unusual for the agency on a hazardous waste cleanup to minimize the existing hard data on the breadth and depth of the poisons, opting instead for "modeled data."

While employees of government agencies such as Ecology and EPA live on the public dole and receive health and retirement packages from the taxpayers, and too many of the public pay health costs out of pocket, these public employees need to discover their allegiance is to the public and not to polluters and corporate shareholders.

We are polluted out! It is time for Ecology to benefit the public.

Gregoire must direct Ecology not to lessen dioxin cleanup standards but keep them stringent.